In re Estate of Ortiz

Where an administrator dies pending administration, and a new administrator is appointed, and the *272 first administrator is one of the heirs, should this estate be kept open until the estate of the deceased administrator’s estate is administered and distributed and let his heirs go with the decree of distribution to the first estate, or let the first estate continue and distribute the share of the deceased administrator to “his estate”?

Answer: If, while the administration of the estate of A is pending, B, an heir, legatee or devisee, should die, the general practice in department No. 9 was to administer the estate of B, and to distribute the interest which B had in the estate of A to the persons entitled thereto. Those persons then apply in the estate of A for distribution to them of the share to which they are entitled as successors in interest of B. The last estate should be distributed first; otherwise the court cannot, without a decree of distribution in the estate of B, know who are the successors in interest of B. This was the rule declared and adopted in the Estate of Cronin, Myr. Pro. Rep. 252.

One exception to this rule was in the estate of Dr. Levi C. Lane, founder…